The Angels make their corresponding 40-man roster move after signing Kyle Hendricks

The Angels, fresh off of signing Kyle Hendricks away from the Chicago Cubs, needed to clear a 40-man roster spot. The resulting move? Right-handed pitcher Ryan Miller was designated for assignment. It's not necessarily goodbye for good, Miller could still potentially clear waivers and return to the club. It's also possible the Angels end up dealing him if there is a market for the Clemson product, and someone would shell out cash for Miller's services.

The Angels are making relatively surprising moves to their 40-man roster. Miller and Kenny Rosenberg, both former Rule-5 Draft picks, were reliable, depth arms. Normally, Rule-5 Draft picks are given priority in terms of the handling of their development and time to get adjusted their new club's organizational philosophy. Both posted great results at the Angels' hitter-friendly AAA affiliate in Salt Lake City, UT last season, and were not anywhere close to abject disasters in the Show.

The Angels are in dire need of arms, depth, and innings eaters. Generally speaking, teams clear pitchers off the 40-man roster to add pitchers onto it, but they released Rosenberg to add Scott Kingery. They retained non-prospects like Bryce Teodosio, Gustavo Campero, Kyren Paris, and Eric Wagaman on the 40-man instead. They deemed it too early to get rid of Anthony Rendon, apparently. In terms of pitchers, they opted to keep Guillo Zuñiga and Hans Crouse over Rosenberg and Miller. They now have 21 pitchers and 19 position players comprising their 40-man.

Miller, in particular, showed a lot of flashes last season with the big league team. While it was a small sample size (13 innings), Miller posted the Angels' sixth best Pitching+ (trailing only Brock Burke, Hunter Strickland, Carlos Estévez, Luis García, and Jack Kochanowicz). The 28-year-old rookie has a riding, mid-90s two seamer, a mid/upper 80s bullet slider, and a low 80s frisbee sweeper--a prototypical arsenal for a reliever. Ideally, the Angels retain Miller's services and do not lose the asset. It never hurts to have extra pitching.

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